Jose Mourinho will face the media today ahead of Watford’s trip to Old Trafford tomorrow. The Manchester United boss is expected to give team news ahead of the game which could see United finally move out of sixth and leapfrog Liverpool into fifth.
Phil Jones told MEN Sport that he has recovered from his injury he sustained against Hull while Luke Shaw has been in full training and Marcos Rojo was the only noticeable absentee from training on Wednesday. On Thursday, the club’s latest financial results were revealed which showed their debt has risen to £409.3m. United have put the 27 per cent rise in debt down to the post-Brexit vote collapse of the pound.
However the club is still set to post record revenues – with an operating profit of £37.6m in their latest quarterly results. Ed Woodward promised that United will continue to improve their squad in the summer and it is understood Mourinho has earmarked Antoine Griezmann as United’s priority.
Ed Woodward has promised to keep trying to improve Manchester United’s squad, although the executive vice-chairman has said this summer’s transfer window will not see the same “churn” of players.
United have spent vast amounts on players since Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement, including the world-record acquisition of Paul Pogba for £93.2m last summer along with deals for Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Eric Bailly.
Those signings led to a 14.2% rise in the wage bill over the same quarter year on year, as shown in United’s financial results for the period ending 31 December 2016, and costs could increase further if Atlético Madrid’s Antoine Griezmann arrive in the summer.
Woodward promised on Thursday to again back José Mourinho in the transfer market but told investors that recruitment will be more steady than in recent years. “Are we happy with the roster at this point? Yes, I think there’s a happiness from the manager at this point, as you can tell in all his recent interviews in terms of where we are as a squad,” he said.
“I think there’s always going to be continual improvement. I think even if you win everything you still want to improve the squad – that’s the nature of the dynamic industry that we’re in. But I think we aren’t necessarily in a position where we have to churn a large number of players.
“I think I’ve guided before that we want to get to a more steady state and be buying and potentially selling a lower number of players each year. I think we’re in that kind of environment now compared to where we were two, three years ago, when perhaps there was a little more churn required.
